July 24th: Va’et’chanan and Tisha B’Av
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
This week, we experience the highs and the lows of Judaism. The highs come in two of the Torah’s most stirring passages: the Ten Commandments and the Shema (Deuteronomy 5.6-18 and 6.4-9). In this week’s Torah portion, they greet us and inspire us once again.
The lows come in the observance known as Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in our Jewish year (this year observed on Thursday July 23rd). Among the terrible things that happened on this day are the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and the final expulsion from Spain in 1492. It is a day for mourning the people killed and exiled in these tragic calamities.
We can also see the highs and lows of Jewish knowledge and observance. While everyone knows the Shema and the Ten Commandments, Tisha B’Av gets much less attention. The Ninth of Av is one of those things that may be on the calendar but is generally ignored.
The reasons for this lack of attention are interesting and tell us much about modern Jewish thinking. Why is the mourning day of Tisha B’Av so unobserved?
(1) Most modern Jews do not feel mournful about the destruction of the Temple. Though the Torah talks a lot about the sacrificial system, Judaism has moved on. Even back in the Bible, some of our Prophets and Psalmists made the point that the sacrifices are not the real point of worship: God does not need the blood or meat or fire. What God wants is piety and morality. According to Rabbi Moses Maimonides, the only reason God instructed us to kill, cook, and eat animals in religious ritual is that our ancestors were already acquainted with this kind of worship. That is how their pagan neighbors worshipped their gods. So, the Lord prescribed a familiar form of worship—with the difference being that our sacrificial worship was to the One God. There is no doubt that the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was a terrible human tragedy, but the ritual problem was quite fixable. Instead of animal sacrifices, we use prayers and Torah study to connect with our God, and many believe that our prayer services are much better than the ancient Temple’s system. In other words, a day mourning our inability to worship with animal sacrifices simply does not resonate with most modern Jews.
(2) There are more recent and relevant things to mourn. We are a people well steeped in adversity and oppression, and, though the destruction of the two Temples (2500 and 1900 years ago) and the Expulsion from Spain (over 500 years ago) are remarkably tragic, there are more recent tragedies to mourn. In particular, our current sense of national grief centers around the Holocaust—and modern days of mourning have been developed: Kristallnacht, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Yom Hashoa.
(3) The timing of Tisha B’Av is awkward. School is off for the Summer, and people are traveling or doing Summer things. For many Jewish children, Tisha B’Av is only known through programming at Jewish Summer Camp. In a traditional mindset, mourning the Holocaust would have been included in the list of calamities remembered on Tisha B’Av, so I wonder if our nine-month school calendar might have been one of the reasons why new days of mourning were developed for this relatively modern tragedy. Tisha B’Av has in some ways, been replaced by the Holocaust memorial observances.
All this being said, there are other interpretations of Tisha B’Av that can make it resonate more deeply with modern sensibilities.
(1) The Destruction of the Temple can be a metaphor for the imperfection of the world. The world’s problems are obvious and expansive, and the Cosmos is desperately in need of Tikkun Olam/Repair. Tisha B’Av can be observed as the Universe calling on us to redouble our efforts to make things better. This is often the tack taken at Jewish Summer Camps: mourn the tragedies of the past, study the needs of today, and resolve to work for social justice.
(2) Tisha B’Av can be a time to mourn for the imperfections in our own personal lives. We all experience sadness—sadnesses and calamities of one form or another, and, though our suffering is not necessarily tied to a particular day on the calendar, there can be value in setting aside some time to mourn. While reading Book of Lamentations about ancient Jerusalem, we can also reflect and mourn the destroyed Jerusalems in our own lives and relationships. Mourning does not solve our problems, but it does give us an opportunity to acknowledge the real sadness with which we cope. It can also give us an opportunity to join with others in our Tradition as we together “sing the blues.” Catharsis is not a solution, but the commonality of our universal experiences can often bring psychic companionship and comfort.
An old legend says that Tisha B’Av will be the birthday of the Messiah, and, in our metaphorical take on this ancient observance, we can pray for the Messianic blessings of compassion, resolve, and hope—hope to endure and hope for future happiness. God is with us. We shall not be moved.
“A Song of Ascents
Out of the depth I call You, O Lord.
O Lord, listen to my cry; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.
If you keep account of sins, O Lord, who could survive?
Yours is the power to forgive, so that You may be held in awe.
I look to the Lord. I look to the Lord! I await Your attention.
I am more eager for the Lord than watchmen for the morning,
Yea, than watchmen for the morning.
Wait for the Lord, O Israel, for with the Lord there is steadfast love
And great power to redeem.
God is the One Who will redeem Israel for all their iniquities”. (Psalm 130)